Medicine & Drugs, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 31, 2014

'Smart Drug' Modafinil Does Not Make You Smarter

It's reported that 1 in 5 students take the drug Modafinil in hopes of boosting their academic performance, but this so-called smart drug may actually impair their ability to answer questions quickly and correctly, a new study finds. The drug, also known by the brand name Provigil, is approved the...

May 31, 2014

How Marijuana Affects Health

Many people think that smoking pot is harmless, but there's good evidence that the drug has at least some negative effects on health, a new review says. Some people who smoke marijuana can become addicted, and use of the drug in the teen years has been linked with abnormalities in...

Nov 30, 2015

'Body by Darwin: How Evolution Shapes Our Health and Transforms Medicine' (US 2015): Book Excerpt

Jeremy Taylor is author of Body by Darwin: How Evolution Shapes Our Health and Transforms Medicine (University of Chicago Press, 2015), a former career science television documentary maker with the BBC, and author of Not A Chimp: The Hunt For The Genes That Make Us Human (OUP, 2009). He contributed...

Aug 31, 2015

Daily Marijuana Use Among College Students Reaches 30-Year High

The percentage of U.S. college students who say they smoke marijuana daily or nearly every day is at its highest in more than three decades, according to a new survey. In 2014, 5.9 percent of college students said they smoked marijuana 20 or more times in the prior month. That's...

Aug 31, 2015

Teens Use E-Cigarettes to 'Vape' Pot

Nearly one-fifth of high school students who use e-cigarettes have tried putting pot into the devices, according to a new study of Connecticut teens. E-cigarettes vaporize, rather than burn, substances, allowing users to inhale nicotine (or THC, the active ingredient in cannabis) without taking in the carcinogens that are caused...

Aug 31, 2015

Marijuana Use May Raise Risk of Developing High Blood Sugar

Marijuana may raise people's risk of developing prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are abnormally high but not high enough to warrant a diagnosis with type 2 diabetes, a new study finds. In the study, researchers found that people who used large amounts of marijuana during young adulthood...

Jul 31, 2015

'Smart Drug' Modafinil Actually Works, Study Shows

The smart drug modafinil actually does work for some people, improving their performance on long and complex tasks, also enhancing decision-making and planning skills, a new review of studies finds. Modafinil, also known by its brand name Provigil, is approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat people with...

Jun 30, 2015

Should Placebos Be Used to 'Treat' Patients?

Placebos offer real therapeutic value: Although they cannot cure an illness, they can make patients feel better. So why not incorporate them into medical practice? In a provocative essay published today (July 1) in The New England Journal of Medicine, Harvard Medical School professor Ted Kaptchuk proposes that placebos should...

Apr 30, 2015

Weekend Drug Use Tends to Become Daily

People who take illegal drugs only on the weekend often wind up becoming daily users, new research suggests. More than half of recreational drug users in the study, who initially reported using illegal drugs only on the weekends, were found to later be using drugs during the week too, according...

Mar 31, 2015

Marijuana Extract May Help Reduce Epilepsy Seizures

A medicine made from marijuana may provide some relief to people with severe epilepsy who don't get better after trying other treatments, according to a new study. In the study, researchers examined 137 people, ranging in age from toddlers to adults, who all had severe epilepsy, a condition that causes...

Sep 30, 2016

Should Marijuana Be Legal? 60 Percent of Americans Now Say Yes

As the question of whether marijuana should be legal comes up for a vote in several U.S. states in this upcoming election, support for legal pot is at its highest in nearly 50 years, according to a new poll. The poll, from Gallup, found that 60 percent of Americans now...

Sep 30, 2016

High Spot: Brain's Marijuana Center Imaged in 3D

The receptor in the brain involved in the high people feel after smoking marijuana is revealed in a new, detailed, 3D image today, according to a new study. This provides scientists with their clearest picture yet of this receptor, the study said. The new image shows how molecules such as...

Sep 30, 2016

High-Potency Pot Doubles Risk of Marijuana Dependence

The more potent the pot is, the more likely a person who uses it is to become dependent on it, a new study from the United Kingdom finds. People in the study who used high-potency marijuana were twice as likely to become dependent as those who used lower-potency forms of...

Sep 30, 2016

Would You Use Pot If It Were Legal? Here's What Americans Say

DENVER — Exactly how many people might start smoking marijuana in states where it becomes legal could vary widely depending on the specifics of each state's laws, such as whether employers can fire someone for smoking it, according to a new study. In fact, more than 50 percent of Americans...

Aug 31, 2016

America's Opioid-Use Epidemic: 5 Startling Facts

Introduction (Image credit: Pills photo via Shutterstock)America is in the midst of an opioid-abuse epidemic, which has caused a startling rise in overdoses and deaths from these highly addictive drugs. Here’s a look at the epidemic by the numbers. The increase in overdose deaths The number of people who have...